I've been rewatching 'Recess' recently and whlie watching the episode 'First Name Ashley', I thought back to one of Oncer's stories and thought 'What if the Ashleys were successful in turning Spinelli over to their side? How would TJ break her out?' Then after watching the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, it dawned on me. What if there was a hidden clause that stated that someone (namely TJ) could bail out an Ashley (namely Spinelli) by defeating the entire clique in a duel? So this will be inspired by Oncer's story 'One of Us' and both of Yugi and Joey's duels in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! as well as the song 'No Matter What' from 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Music To Duel By'. Let's roll it!
It was just a normal day on the playground of Third Street School. But for one 4th grader, it was about to become the absolute worst day of her life. Randall Weems, the school snitch, had just pushed Spinelli too far. After having pinned Randall, he did the unthinkable...
"I'll get you for this...ASHLEY SPINELLI!"
...Randall had revealed Spinelli's most personal secret - her first name. She was an Ashley.
"No! Don't listen to him! He's lying!" Spinelli called out, knowing of Randall's propensity to snitch and lie for Ms. Muriel Finster, the teacher who ruled over the playground.
"Oh yeah? Well explain this!" Randall retorted as he threw down Spinelli's personal record which indeed revealed her full name - Ashley Spinelli. This prompted laughter from across the playground.
To Spinelli, the name Ashley wasn't just a name - it was a curse. Gretchen suggested a name change, but that was out of the question for Spinelli. She was named after a family hero - her great aunt Ashley, the first woman to win the Iditarod.
"Besides, it's not that I hate the name Ashley. It's just that...well, for as long as I can remember, every other girl named Ashley's always been...one of them..." Spinelli explained, pointing over to the Ashley clubhouse. "Snotty, prissy and a member of their stupid, snotty, prissy club."
"So?" questioned the military-minded new kid Gus Griswald.
"So now that everyone knows my name, I'm gonna have to join their stupid club and wear makeup and play dollies and drink...tea..." Spinelli disgustingly freaked. Her friends just laughed it off. "What's so funny?"
"Oh nothing. It's just that...the Ashleys wouldn't let you join their club if you paid 'em a million bucks!" the leader of the Recess gang, TJ Detweiler, reassured.
"Yeah! The Ashleys hate your guts!" Gus added in. This calmed Spinelli to a degree knowing that her true friends were right there to support her. Little did they know, the Ashleys were plotting something at their clubhouse...something sinister.
However, Spinelli was ready for this. In her right hand she held a note and Duel Monsters card She thought to herself 'TJ, if those Ashleys do something to me, I want you to be the one that saves me...' She then took an envelope from her backpack, slipping the note and the card in. She then left the envelope in the hands of King Bob, warning him of what was to come later.
Meanwhile, over at the Ashley clubhouse...
"This is, like, a major tragedy!" Ashley Tomassian freaked.
"That creature? An Ashley? How could that be? I mean, like, look at her hair! She doesn't even mousse!" Ashley Quinlan scoffed.
"All these years of primping and blow drying the Ashley name to perfection and now this? It's a disgrace!"
"Girls, we have to do something..." Ashley Armbruster said with a hint of urgency in her voice.
"Like what, Ashley A?"
"I'm afraid our only choice is to make Spinelli into...one of us..."
The other Ashleys freaked at this prospect.
"What choice do we have, Ashleys? I mean, if we let her go around being her crude, disgusting Spinelli self, the name Ashley will be ruined forever. No longer will it stand for beauty and specialness. Soon other girls will be considered cooler than us and if we're not careful, by the time we're in junior high, our first dates will be with guys named...Paul or Joe!"
Ashley Boulet screamed at that possibility put forth by her leader.
"Ashleys, we have no choice. We must make Spinelli into one of us. It's, like, the only way..."
While the Recess crew was playing tetherball, the Ashleys approached Spinelli, putting their sinister plot into action.
"What do you want?" Spinelli asked, looking in disgust at her archfoes.
The Ashleys looked to each other before looking back towards Spinelli. "I, Ashley A, invite you, Ashley S, to be our new sister."
The remaining Ashleys clapped their hands, thinking Ashley A's plan was about to come to fruition. Spinelli just laughed it off.
"Yeah, right. Send in the clowns, powderpuff."
Ashley B soon spoke up. "Actually, Ashley S, you, like, don't have a choice."
Spinelli became increasingly annoyed. "Like, what?"
Ashley A reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a copy of the playground constitution. "According to the constitution of the playground - Rule 5, Article 3, under Cliques and I quote 'Any kid named Ashley must become a member of the Ashleys if invited by another Ashley'"
"But that can't be right!"
"I'm afraid it is, Spinelli. It's an obscure, rarely used rule, but it's here," Gretchen confirmed.
Ashley A gave a smirk "So I guess it's, like, official. You're one of us..."
"ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!" The Ashleys chanted.
Spinelli tried to escape, but was quickly detained by 2 older girls who dragged her to the Ashley clubhouse.
Ashley A then spoke. "Come on, Ashley S, you'll just love our clubhouse!"
The Recess gang could only look on as their friend and TJ's (secret) crush was dragged away to the lair of their enemies. Gretchen soon broke the silence. "Boy, talk about peer pressure."
Outside the clubhouse, Spinelli seemed unimpressed with the setup. "This is your clubhouse?"
"As if!" Ashley A corrected her, unlocking the clubhouse. "This is our clubhouse! It's remarkable what one can do with a few accessories."
Spinelli went from cynicism to stunned amazement at the interior of the underground structure's interior. "Wow! This is amazing! This is...wait, why are you all looking at me like that?"
Spinelli was then frightened when the Ashleys started looking at her with sinister looks on their faces. She knew a makeover was about to happen.
"Don't worry, Ashley S...it's a good thing..." The Ashleys said in unison. The second step in turning Spinelli into one of them was altering her entire appearance.
Within a matter of minutes, the Ashleys had managed to completely change Spinelli's entire look. It was now time to introduce her to the playground.
"Kids of the playground, we present to you...Ashley S!"
Spinelli had come out in a red dress, black shoes and white leggings. Her black hair was done in a bun and she was now wearing a white hat with a red bow on it. Randall was laughing up a storm.
"Spinelli? In a dress? This is rich! This is really rich!"
Yeah...no. Never provoke Spinelli. "Why you...lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em!"
Spinelli was about to attack Randall, per usual. However, Ashley A and Ashley B held her back and dragged her back into the clubhouse. Then Ashley Q had a stunning announcement, turning to TJ and the others.
"Just in case you had anything planned, we've, like, changed our membership rules. From now on, if there's any other kids named Ashley, they need to be approved by a majority before being accepted into our group! So don't even try any name changing scheme, dorks!"
Outside the clubhouse, the gang was stuck.
"Oh the horror! We've lost a friend!" Mikey spoke poetically.
"What are we gonna do, guys?" Gus asked. "We can't leave a fellow soldier behind!"
"Gus, your military honor is admirable and you're right - we can't leave our comrade in arms behind," Gretchen agreed. "However, the Ashleys changed the rules on us. They've barred us from even trying a name changing plan so we'll have to try something else."
"So, Teej...what's the plan?" Vince asked urgently, hopeful that TJ would come up with a plan to rescue Spinelli from the Ashleys' clutches.
"First thing's first. If the Ashleys have us cut off from Spinelli, we'll have to go to the one man that outranks them on the playground - first stop: King Bob," TJ said, causing the others to gasp.
However, when they went to King Bob...
"I see your plight, 4th graders. And while I do appreciate the direct approach and informing me of the situation, unfortunately, I, King Robert the 6th, have no authority to change the rules of a clique. That's the sole jurisdiction of the clique leader."
That just incensed TJ. "Then what kind of king are you then? You're gonna just stand idly by and let a fellow student get tortured?"
"Detweiler, your loyalty to your friends is most admirable indeed. You remind me a lot of myself when I was in your shoes as a plucky 4th grader. But it's as I told you and your friends before - I have no authority to change the rules of a clique. Even if I did, I'm barred from doing so by the constitution of the playground. Rule 6, Article 2 - limits on the powers of the king. Guards, send the friends away...I need to talk with Detweiler personally."
King Bob's guards sent Vince and the others away while King Bob got down on TJ's eye level. "TJ, I respect and admire your loyalty and dedication to your friends. With the Ashleys having taken Spinelli, the balance of the playground has been threatened. You are the chosen one, 4th grader. You are the one that can restore balance to the playground."
"Me?"
"Yes you, TJ...before Spinelli was taken by the Ashleys, she left this in my hands and entrusted its delivery to me," King Bob said, handing the envelope to TJ. "You are to open it right now..."
With a nod, TJ opened the envelope, revealing a note from Spinelli.
'Dear TJ,
If you're reading this, that means the Ashleys have done something to me. I anticipate that they'll have changed their rules at this point, making it more difficult for you and the others to formulate a plan to save me. But I know King Bob has an alternative route. That's why I've entrusted the delivery of this note to him. I've also enclosed a special card for you to add to your deck as a reminder that we'll always be there for each other no matter what. Those Ashleys can't take away our friendship, not if I can help it! I know you'll be able to save me from those powderpuffs. Don't give up the fight! I'm counting on you...
Your best friend forever,
Spinelli'
TJ dug into the envelope again and pulled out the card. But it wasn't just any card...
"Spinelli left me her Red-Eyes Black Dragon...something tells me there's a reason she did so, more than as a symbol of our friendship."
King Bob nodded. "There is. I didn't want to reveal this in front of Grundler and the others, but there's a hidden clause in the cliques section. A kid named Ashley can escape the Ashleys if they or one of their friends is able to defeat the original Ashleys in a duel, one after the other. Detweiler, Spinelli chose you for just this mission."
"If that's what it takes...then I'm invoking the duel clause."
"I had a feeling you would if it were brought up. You are the best duelist Third Street has ever seen. I know you can beat those Ashleys and save your friend. Now prepare your best deck...I'll announce the invocation of the duel clause at the end of 2nd recess today. Now go, Detweiler...be with your friends. You'll make a fine king someday...I know."
With a nod, TJ thanked King Bob before heading back to his friends. King Bob then turned to his guards and shot a glance at TJ. "That Detweiler kid is so much like me...I just hope he doesn't get corrupted by the powers of the king...like I have. I hope that when the time comes, he uses his powers of the king responsibly."
Once back with his friends, TJ had a smile on his face as if he had a new plan...which he did.
"Guys...I got a new plan to save Spinelli!"
"That's awesome, TJ!" Gus celebrated.
"What's the plan, Teej?" Vince asked.
"King Bob informed me of a never used clause under cliques. Must've just been added in - states that any kid named Ashley may escape the Ashleys if they or any of their friends is able to defeat the original Ashleys in a duel..."
The group gasped. They never saw this coming.
"A Duel Monsters related clause? Why would the Ashleys add that?" Gus asked.
"Probably because they think no one would be able to beat them," Vince assessed.
"Well, they're about to be proven wrong...especially since I now have a card that'll snap Spinelli back to her senses..." TJ said, revealing Spinelli's Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "This is the card I'll use to bring Spinelli back to us..."
So TJ and friends have a plan to free Spinelli from the Ashleys. But do the Ashleys already know? Do they have a counterstrategy to stop TJ? And will TJ be able to break Spinelli free from the Ashleys' control? We'll find out next time!